Whispers from the Heart

What do you hear? Do you hear the voices coming from your heart? Do you hear the voice of that someone who loves you and has been with you since time immemorial? How many times have we ignored that voice and decided we knew what we were doing? When in solitude, if we observe, most of us can sense another someone repeatedly telling us what to do or how to do it. Those guiding voices are the Whispers from the Heart. As our consciousness gets purer and more subtle, ever so gently the Lord seated within our heart as the super soul speaks to us.

The practice of devotional service is the means to cultivating this connection with the super soul. When we chant the Hare Krishna Mahamantra and when we serve the Lord in His deity form we develop a relationship with Him. This practice at first may be selfish, but as it purifies one’s heart it slowly becomes selfless by the mercy of Sri Guru and the Holy names. One has to be serious and sincere. That is what is required. The Lord as super soul, also known as Chaitya guru, accompanies the soul birth after birth and is never separate from him. We are so covered up and blinded by the illusory potency, maya, that we fail to sense that. Once our practice of devotional service is firm and we practice with sincerity and selflessness, the curtain of illusion is lifted and you can start to hear the voices and instructions coming from within.

I had asked this question to Srila Prem Gopal Goswami Maharaj, “how do we know if it’s the super soul speaking or if it’s our mind? How do we tell the difference?” His reply was:

Chaitya guru is Krishna. The mind is consciousness which is attached to the material world and which is very fast. When the same instruction comes from inside again and again with persistence that means its Chaitya guru, but when it changes, it’s the mind as the mind is always wavering very fast. If the instruction coming is a warning of some previous experience then it’s coming from the subconscious mind, the chitta.

Here Prabhu is mentioning three different aspects of our consciousness. They are the cit, citta, and the mind. These three are different from each other. The soul is sat-cit-ananda, eternal, consciousness and blissful. The super soul is the source also known as Chaitya guru, our Supreme Lord. The soul is cit, pure and unconditioned in its original nature, but is being routed in this material world by the citta, the conditioned state of consciousness. That’s why we identify with the material body as being us. The mind acts as the screen on which this conditioned state is replayed over and over like a movie screen. The original cit in its pure state has the capacity to sense the super soul next to him, just like the conditioned soul can see and sense another material body next to it. Bhagavad Gita says in 10.10 & 10.11

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ
yena mām upayānti te

To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.

teṣām evānukampārtham
aham ajñāna-jaṁ tamaḥ
nāśayāmy ātma-bhāva-stho
jñāna-dīpena bhāsvatā

To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.

The Lord tells Arjuna that basically there is no possibility of understanding the Supreme Truth, the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, simply by speculating, for the Supreme Truth is so great that it is not possible to understand Him or to achieve Him simply by making a mental effort. Man can go on speculating for several millions of years, and if he is not devoted, if he is not a lover of the Supreme Truth, he will never understand Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Truth. Only by devotional service is the Supreme Truth, Kṛṣṇa, pleased, and by His inconceivable energy He can reveal Himself to the heart of the pure devotee. The pure devotee always has Kṛṣṇa within his heart; and with the presence of Kṛṣṇa, who is just like the sun, the darkness of ignorance is at once dissipated. This is the special mercy rendered to the pure devotee by Kṛṣṇa. Due to the contamination of material association, through many, many millions of births, one’s heart is always covered with the dust of materialism, but when one engages in devotional service and constantly chants Hare Kṛṣṇa, the dust quickly clears, and one is elevated to the platform of pure knowledge. Source

With serious and sincere efforts Krishna will be pleased. Then we will be able to sense the super soul speaking to us as Whispers from the heart!!

Chant and hear those whispers!!

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare